Junction
by dragons790
Summary: In a world where one's dream is just as strong as another, the costs of continuing are high. There are the tired ones, the tried ones on the sidelines, and the ones who still fight and fall. Rated T for darkness.


The first part of the test had been easy. Like the rest of the kids, she had spent hours upon hours on it, thinking it to be the most difficult part, that when it was over and she had a pokeball in her hand, it would be easy from then on.

She didn't expect this.

Like everyone else, she had breezed through the first written test, then imagined confidently controlling the rental pokemon inside as if it were a trained growlithe.

But when her hands closed around the pokeball, prickles of nervousness shook her grasp. Suddenly apprehensive, her cheer shriveled in her throat as she released the pokemon. She would wonder why, and her mind would flash to images of unruly pikachus and electabuzzes and all things awful, and it would go blank again. Time slowed into long seconds as the bright white beam shaped itself into a small creature huddling on the ground.

_Oh, _she breathed. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath. It was just a purrloin, a popular pet species that her parents often bred. The purrloin glanced around, but when it saw her it arched its spine and bristled its tail. The purrloin's pupils constricted and it hissed, and the harsh sound translated to fear-slurred words in her mind.

**_Getawaygetawaygetawaygetaway_**

"Calm down," she whispered to it, then gently touched on its mind. It ducked away for a moment, crouching, and stared up at her for a long moment, thin pupils dilating slowly as if in understanding. Almost too easily, it purred and rubbed up against her legs. She smiled, relieved, and stroked its fur.

Satisfied that the feline pokemon was calm, she returned the purrloin to its pokeball and put it in the testing machine behind her, which buzzed accordingly, opening the door for another applicant to enter. With an uplifted heart, she waltzed out of the testing arena.

* * *

"Now we will be announcing the trainers who have not passed our required tests. If your name is called, please exit the gymnasium to the right. Do not attempt to enter the pokemon pen, guards will be waiting for identification," the announcer proclaimed. With her words, the entire gym of students quieted, although that may have had to do with the announcer's bullhorn as well.

She drummed her fingers against her leg. After the day of intensive testing, she was both excited and nervous to see who would be becoming trainers, and those who would have to wait to test again another year. She had, after all, spent a whole year at the school in preparation.

"Arak Goy." Silence, then a ton of reassurances and empty promises to wait.

In total, there were 134 other kids taking the tests to become trainers this year, the most applicants ever seen at Altaria Hills Pokemon School. But, considering how small and out-of-the-way Altaria Hills was, larger places like Wellglass probably had hundreds, if not thousands, of applicants.

"Gabe Choud," came the disappointing proclamation.

But then again, they probably didn't have as many actual trainers as Altaria Hills did. A free, League-issued starter pokemon was to begin any pokemon related career, whether it was breeding, like her parents, researching, law enforcement, healing, or the traveling trainer and coordinator. Altaria Hills, small and cold as it was, was not a prime research center nor a criminal hotspot. Most kids left as trainers for better opportunities with free protection and travel by pokemon. To be truthful, though, she could have managed without the pokemon, just the trainer license that allowed ten-year-olds to be able to own them. Her parents, after all, were breeders, and could supply her with one themselves. Still she wanted to do it the normal way, like the rest of the trainers. Because of this, she had been called foolish several times by more than two people because of this, but she hung on. Besides, the school probably had more choices of pokemon species than her parents, who focused on the popular pet species like purrloins and vulpixes.

"Hey! Ari!"

She turned. Her best friend, Fennel ran up to her, short-cropped cinnamon hair flapping wildly.

"I was looking for you the whole day but I couldn't find you anywhere," she said.

"Sorry. I finished the written test late and the line for the second was way too long and I only got here after the speech was ending."

"Avihani Song," the announcer continued. A wail followed, along with several dozen _shh_s and _shut up_s.

"So you didn't miss anything important! She just went on and on with the speech. I thought we'd never get to know if we'd get a starter today."

Ari laughed and said, "well, at least we're here now. What do you think about the written test?" Her real concerns were with the second one, though. She was sure Fennel, who had studied every day for it, would do fine on the first one.

"It was easier than I thought! The question about water pokemon wounds threw me off though. Like, I wasn't sure whether to just leave their wounds unbandaged and keep them clean or to try to keep them covered even though bandages"- "Isabella Slikes"- wouldn't stick."

"Oh," Ari chuckled, "I just wrote to take that pokemon to a healing center. How was your rental pokemon?"

"That's what I'm nervous about. I got an emolga."

"Alacie Shoddheks ."

Ari winced. Electric types were commonly known to be hyperactive and hard to control. "That's the luck of the draw, I guess."

Fennel nodded miserably. "It just flew in a circle above me, making this weird buzzing sound. I tried to say something calm to it, like it said in the books, but-"

"Fennel Veraz."

The world stopped.

All she could see was Fennel's eyes, wide like a deerling in the headlights.

"The rest of you may now come to receive your pokemon. Please do not forget to register yourself as a trainer at the nearest pokemon center as soon as possible." The words sounded cold and far away.

The line of trainers surged forward, only to be stopped by several guards pushing for names.

It was Fennel who moved first.

"No," Ari whispered.

"I have to."

"No! You studied so much, you have to- you couldn't have-"

Fennel looked at the guards, who were methodically checking every new trainer, everyone except _her_, and said, "I have to go."

When she stumbled, trying to follow her out, when the announcer tried to reassure her with a "don't worry, there's always next year", she stopped and watched her best friend slip away.

A starter pokemon was waiting for her.

She wandered around aimlessly at first. Indistinct images of pokemon in pens blurred in her mind, from hoothoots to emolgas. But when she neared the buneary section, packed full with dozens of the rabbit pokemon, she felt something tugging at her. It was an odd sensation, something leading her forward but also luring her, and in her weakness she couldn't resist.

As she followed, she grew more entranced. If the tug by the bunearies was a thread, possible to break with the slightest resistance, it turned into a string, then a rope. Its ending was something important, it told her, but when she tried to focus on it, it dissipated like wisps of dreams. It was a track impossible to get out of. It entangled her and she noticed but didn't resist, instead closing her eyes and following.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in front of the nidoran section. Like all the other pens, it was reinforced by light screen and reflect walls. Only one of the four pokeballs was left, labeled as _#612_.

She hastily scooped up the pokeball and looked around for its recipient.

The nidoran stood right in front of her, one ear garnished with a metal tag with the same number etched onto it. Ari wasn't familiar with the species, but it didn't look much like a psychic to her, with its blue fur and stout body. Asking a nearby passerby told her that it was a female.

She felt the pull loosen and beckon her to act.

_Hello, _she offered. When there was no response, she continued. _Why did you pull me here?_

The nidoran twitched her ears, one held down with the tag, and said, "nidoniran nido." It would have been gibberish to other trainers, but Ari could understand it and respond since she was young, which was something unheard of at her age. Only some experienced trainers had been noted to able to ever be able to do so. Which led to jokes about her parents breeding _her_ like their pokemon to be able to hear and speak their languages.

The nidoran's voice was quiet but strong. _**What did you do...**_

_What?_

The nidoran shook her head, as if clearing its thoughts, and said _**I'll explain everything later. Trust me now- it was hard enough to even meet you here, and I don't want any more mistakes. **_

A part of herself doubted it, but the pull had returned and she found herself reaching for the pokeball. The painfully bright beam passed through the barriers and recalled the nidoran, leaving behind the tag, which clattered to the floor. She was starting to leave when an shrill voice pierced the air.

"Hey you! Yeah, you. Let's battle!"

Ari turned to spot a boy with messy brown hair and a grin on his face.

"Wait, what?" she said.

"Let's battle! My friend was sick today and had to stay home, and no one else wanted to battle with me… so, let's do this!" He pulled a lone pokeball from his belt and eagerly tossed it at the ground. It burst open in a dazzling flare of light that materialized into a spiny purple creature. It was a nidoran. He raised his spiny ears and called out a challenge.

It was strange that he had picked the same species of pokemon as her. Foreboding thoughts rushed through her mind. But before she could respond, her own nidoran burst out in her own blinding flash. The nidoran's fur was standing on end and her teeth were bared as she materialized, as if it already knew of the other.

"Needle, use peck!" the boy shouted. For emphasis, he pointed at her nidoran excitedly.

The purple nidoran charged forward, the long horn on his forehead aimed to stab.

"Dodge, uh, nidoran!" she shouted back. She winced. How had she forgot to name her? But despite that and her wishing that Fennel was here instead of a random boy, it was still her first battle and the adrenaline felt like fire in her blood.

Her nidoran dodged at the last second, chubby body moving faster than she thought was possible. The male nidoran overbalanced and tripped, stabbed empty air. Her nidoran lowered her ears and hissed something. Ari couldn't make out what it was, being spoken so fast. He responded with a roar that sounded more of a squeak, a cry of indignation more than coherent words. He tried to lunge at her again, but when she dodged this time, she didn't stop and rushed straight into his side and began goring him with her teeth. Blood splattered on the ground around the two writhing nidorans, compounded by the boy's screaming. Quickly, he withdrew his nidoran and ran off to a nearby healing center.

Her nidoran stood victoriously, covered with a glistening layer of blood. Shuddering, Ari reached out to her mind.

_Why did you-_

_**Given a chance, he would have done the same to me. But he didn't, so I won. You should learn that sometimes you have to act before others hurt you.**_

_Yes, but..._ She looked over her bloody form. _Did you have to do all that?_

_**Nidorans have the same venom, and we're all immune to it. There's nothing that I did that the healing machines won't fix.**_

_But..._

_**You have healing machines. He'll be **_**fine**_**.**_

In her head, the nidoran's voice sounded exasperated so she decided to change the topic_._

_You need a name._

_**...**_

_How's Taro?_

_**...sure.**_

_So do you like it?_

_**It's good.**_

_Okay, let's get you cleaned up. _Ari recalled Taro and started to the healing center.

The nurse there was like any other, with the standard white outfit. "Any major injuries?" he asked.

Ari, not wanting to startle him with Taro's bloodiness, awkwardly mumbled, "no, but she's kind of, uh..."

"Don't worry, I seen hundreds of pokemon from battles every day. I'm sure yours won't be too much of a shock," the nurse said. Despite his words, his voice was emotionless, as if it was a speech he recited to boredom. He loaded Taro's pokeball into the slightly dented, but otherwise undamaged healing machine next to him. A few seconds later, a sharp buzz emanated from the machine. The nurse frowned and looked over it. Then he took out the pokeball and returned it to Ari. "I'd like to remind you that healing centers are only for pokemon that actually need healing," he said in a monotone voice.

"But- my nidoran! She was covered with blood! How could there be no injuries?"

The nurse seemed no more interested than before. "All pokemon given out here are caught from the wild and receive no training other than basic obedience. Your nidoran must have been one of the more experienced ones in the wild."

Not willing to question the nurse any further, Ari left the healing center and glanced around. They must have battled longer than she thought. The arena and the pokemon pen were mostly deserted, except for a few lingering trainers and unchosen pokemon. Ari looked at the pen. They were mostly local pokemon that had lost their novelty: swablus and pinecoes and snovers. But there were also a few unpopular invasive species, whole flocks of pidgeys and groups of bunearies.

"What do you do with all these pokemon if they haven't been taken?" she asked a lone janitor who was mopping up the remnants of battles. The question came to her suddenly, but she was curious so it didn't seem too out of place.

The old man smiled down at her, wrinkling his face with deep lines. "Oh, those ones will be released back into the wild where they belong."

_**Liar.**_

The word pressed itself painfully into her mind. She looked at the nidoran, who stared back with wide eyes. "But what about the invasive ones?" she asked the janitor, the question suddenly flashing before her eyes.

"T- those will be given to breeders who they can spend a happy life with." The janitor, finished, picked up his mop and walked off. A little too quickly, to her eyes.

_But… Mom said that breeders didn't want any invasive pokemon, they were unpopular and the police didn't like when they did bred them. Why would they take them?_

_**What do you think?**_ Ari was jolted by Taro's response.

_I… but this doesn't make any sense! Why would breeders want bunearies and pidgeys? Mom and Dad never got any pokemon leftover from the starter tests, either. They never said anything about them. And the shelters won't take them because there are too many wild invasives in there already that no one wants, trainers and coordinators won't take them because they're everywhere, researches and police officers would need more long-lived pokemon for their jobs, and nurses only want the healing ones. Who would want them? Why would they even have them as starters?_ The words came quickly, pushed forwards by the nidoran's comment.

The only thing she got in return was the soft hum of Taro thinking.

Perturbed, she exited the building. It was late. The stars were already out and wind whistled between buildings. It was too late to start her journey now, no matter what she wanted to leave behind. Everyone knew the night wasn't safe, and the next town was several miles away. A tiny part of her still felt shattered, but otherwise she only felt apathetic.

As she walked down an empty street, a birdcall disturbed the air.

It was the screech of a pidgey, sharp and sudden. She looked around, but she didn't see anything.

A few steps later, an explosion burst into the air, compounded with dozens of pidgey screams and several unclear but different calls. This time when she turned, a flock of pidgeys rose into the air, something metallic flashing among them. Ari thought she caught the pale wings of a swablu as well. Another boom, more pokemon, and now the barking of some other pokemon. This time she didn't stop to look, she just ran. Her house was still several streets away.

As she dashed up the sidewalk, she felt a presence, a moving shadow behind her. A thump. Terrified, she scrabbled against Taro's pokeball. With the light emanating from the pokeball as it opened, she spotted something yellow and strips of red. Blood.

Before she could react, Taro dashed towards it and shouted at her with her mind.

_**He's hurt! We have to help!**_

The barking was closer now, clearly multiple pokemon.

_What-_

_**Come on!**_

As she neared the figure, she could make it out better under the dim moonlight. There was bright yellow fleece and dark fur, laced with cuts dotted with bright bits of broken glass and smudged with dirt. A buneary, she realized, with a hint of revulsion. Something paler gleamed on one of its ears, a metal tag, she realized. It was not a trainer's pokemon. It was not a wild pokemon. It was from the school.

The din of the hounds grew louder still.

_This is an runaway starter!_

_**So? He's hurt! We need to help him. You have to take him with us. He could be left out here for who knows how long!**_

_We can't! It's illegal to steal pokemon, and they have his tag and pokeball to track him down. _She heard shouts with the barking, human ones. _They're coming! We have to go, now!_

_**Take him with us!**_ The nidoran refused to budge from the buneary's side. Cursing, Ari pulled out Taro's pokeball.

_**Don't-**_

And she started to run again.

* * *

"Honey! We thought you'd left without saying good bye!" Ari's parents stared at her in the doorway, exhausted and frightened but relieved. Her parents were still there, warm and welcoming as always.

"No. I didn't have enough time to start on my journey."

"Oh," her father said, quieted for a second, "well, there's always tomorrow. What starter did you pick?"

Ari felt none of the excitement she thought she would have as she opened Taro's pokeball.

"How cute! What's its name?"

"Taro." Even her voice sounded hollow.

Her parents, sensing this, cut off their questions and ushered her up to her room. As she lay halfway between waking and dreaming, a voice floated into her mind.

_**You could have saved him.**_

Sleep enveloped her.

* * *

Ari awoke to the sound of her parents' talking. She got up, dressed, and went downstairs.

Her parents sat at the table, an enormous breakfast spread out in front of them on the kitchen table. The third seat was pushed out for her. Ari took it. It was quiet for several minutes, until her mother broke it.

"We put your backpack by the door, dear. You forgot it last night," her mother said, pointing to a bag next to the door. Ari remembered painstakingly packing it in the weeks before. It seemed so long ago now.

Her father continued, "since you didn't have any dinner last night, and this is your last day home for who knows how long, we made you a big breakfast. Also-" he gestured to the corner, where a dish of berries sat, "-we made some for your pokemon, too."

Ari forced a smile onto her face and released Taro. The nidoran looked at her balefully before crawling over to the dish. Her parents eyes turned back to her again.

For a split second, she considered telling them everything: Fennel, the call, Taro, the escaping ones, and the buneary. But she clutched hold of her emotions again and told herself that if she told them now, she would probably not become a trainer until next year, if at all.

So she continued to eat in silence. The food, despite being all her favorites, tasted like ash in her mouth.

Numerous times her parents tried to engage her in conversation, but she told them she didn't feel like talking and continued eating.

After breakfast was finished, her parents caught her in one last hug. "We'll miss you," her mother breathed into her ear, "but don't let that hold you back. We hope you'll find what is that you're looking for."

Ari found it within her to smile, truthfully this time if only a little. She said her goodbyes, recalled Taro, took her backpack, and left.

* * *

Outside, the streets were covered with grayish slush and snow. Ari shivered. It would take several days to get through the Altaria Hills, and even with her supplies, she had never liked sleeping in the cold, wet snow that always seemed to permeate her clothes. She thought about starting her journey right away, but decided to visit Fennel first. Ari wasn't sure of exactly what to say, but she could at least make her feel better.

As she walked along the road to Fennel's house, her mind wandered back to the day before. With a sudden pang of regret, she glanced along the sidewalk where she encountered the buneary.

It was better and worse than what she had imagined. Nothing but icy slush slowly melting into dirty water.

A few minutes of dull walking later, she reached Fennel's house. The door stood looming between her and her friend, and a bit hesitantly, she knocked.

No answer.

She tried again. Still nothing.

It felt like yesterday's problems weighed down on her again. She probably would never see Fennel again. Even if their journeys only started a year apart, they would probably never see each other again. Dejectedly, Ari wandered around, still wanting to put off her journey. Suddenly she remembered about the school. Ari let her imagination fill the dark, dull places in her mind. With the escaped pokemon last night, would anything change? Her mind raced with the possibilities. Maybe some large city, perhaps Symbiodia or Phloxbud or even Wellglass sent secret police officers to Altaria Hills to recapture them, or maybe the local government arranged a secret operation to hunt them down during the night, or maybe...

Her imaginations hit a brick wall when she reached the school. The familiar wide, grey buildings was still there, surrounded by a tall fence topped with barbed wire. Several of the windows were covered up, she noted excitedly, and shards of broken glass littered the bottom of one. But the entrance to the school was securely shut with a large padlock and crisscrossed with bright yellow caution tape. A handwritten note fluttered on the fence, the words scrawled messily.

_Altaria Hills Pokemon School is closed for maintenance. Please submit trainer test forms at Cloud Falls Elementary School._

Scowling, she ran around the perimeter of the fence, searching for the back entrance hidden in the alleyways. But although it was only latched shut, a pair of fierce looking silver-and-black dogs slept by it, their leashes tied to the fence. One of the growled in its sleep, revealing sharp, white teeth. Ari decided that she didn't want to risk getting her throat torn out and that Taro probably couldn't fight them both off.

Instead she headed to the entrance to the wilderness, the start of her journey.

It was harder than she thought to leave the town she grew up in, but then again, lots of things had been harder than she thought.

* * *

At the foot of the Altaria Hills, everything was white.

The forest's boughs were hidden by a faultless snow blanket, untouched since the night before. It felt like she was still in the depths of winter instead of the start of spring.

After about an hour of hiking, she began to feel better. She stopped thinking about the day before and more on the wonderland in front of her- the trees did actually look as if they had beards. Every now and then she heard the clear, high-pitched call of a swablu or the more robust pidgey, and sometimes she spotted lone pineco on snow-laden branches. Once, she glimpsed something yellow that she couldn't identify. She wondered if it was a persian, the reclusive cat that almost no one caught a glimpse of but was rumored to be the culprit any time someone's pokemon went missing. A few times she thought about Fennel, but soon after she was distracted by a swablu's call.

Over time, she found herself daydreaming about befriending amazing pokemon and beating the gym leaders, and then the League with them. None of the pokemon in Altaria Hills truly interested her, though. Ari was dreaming about powerful, exotic ones: absols and metagrosses, mantines and lucarios. In a good mood, she released Taro to walk beside her.

Ari felt Taro probing at her mind, wishing to talk, but she wasn't in _that_ good of a mood.

The nidoran gave up trying to talk and crawled along. Her fur stood on end. She looked like a pom pom and Ari laughed. Taro glowered at her, but she ignored it.

A few hours later, Ari decided to stop for lunch. She laid out a waterproof blanket. The nidoran practically fell onto it. Ari frowned and tossed her an oran berry left over from breakfast. Taro ignored it.

As Ari munched on her sandwich, she felt Taro's touch on her mind again. Deciding that she couldn't ignore her forever, she let her in.

_Before you say anything, I'm not sorry. That was an escaped starter pokemon, and we couldn't have stolen it just to take with us. You know that._

_**Fine.**_

_That was suspiciously easy._

_**You're my trainer now, and I should have obeyed you.**_

_..._

The nidoran took a bite of the berry.

_Fine then. Why did you pull me?_

_**What?**_

_You pulled me to come to the pen and told me to choose you._

_**I didn't do any such thing. **_

_But I heard it. It was to you! And you just sat there and let me take you!_

_**That was because I didn't want to get left behind, like the others.**_

Ari ignored the hint of bitterness. "You said- you told me that there was something if I were to- and you said that you'd explain everything later, and you didn't want any more mistakes"

_**Do I look like a psychic to you? And I don't remember saying anything like that.**_

"You spoke to me with your mind! In perfect English! The pull, who else could it have been?"

_**You spoke to me as well. In perfect Nidotongue, with more coherence than I've ever heard. Why couldn't it have been your own imagination leading you to me? **_

"I- I…"Ari was confounded. Had she really just imagined it? It had seemed so real. Tiredly, she closed her eyes for a moment, trying to clear her thoughts.

When she opened them again, Taro was walking off. "Where are you going?" she asked. Suddenly she realized that she had been talking out loud at their conversation. Her voice sounded so familiar in her thoughts and her voice that she didn't notice.

The nidoran didn't stop. _**I'm going ahead. Come when you're ready.**_

She sighed and began to pack up the blanket. All she could think about was that was this really what independence was like?

A couple minutes later, she was done. After a bit of walking, she spotted Taro's bluish body against the snow. The nidoran walked on resolutely, despite the tiredness that slowed her limbs. Ari caught up to her, wondering if she should recall her. When the nidoran continued to ignore her, she peevishly decided not to.

As they walked, the trees began to widen into a clearing, snowy white and undisturbed except for a set of dents almost like footprints in the snow. Curious, she followed them to a larger, oddly shaped dent with a deeper middle and long, thin protuberances. It didn't look like a normal valley, and the snow around it was higher for a good ways out. She looked at Taro, but she seemed just as confused. Shrugging, she began to scrape at the dent.

The snow pulled away easily, light and loose. It was easy to dig, and she didn't need to dig far before she found something.

Then she stumbled backwards as fast as she could.

Uncovered in the snow was a mop of unkempt brown hair framing unnaturally pale, blue-tinged skin.


End file.
